This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Natural resources, such as oil and gas, are used as fuel to power vehicles, heat homes, and generate electricity, in addition to a myriad of other uses. Once a desired resource is discovered below the surface of the earth, drilling and production systems are often employed to access and extract the resource. These systems may be located onshore or offshore depending on the location of a desired resource. Further, such systems generally include a wellhead assembly through which the resource is extracted. These wellhead assemblies may include a wide variety of components and/or conduits, such as various casings, hangers, valves, fluid conduits, and the like, that control drilling and/or extraction operations. In some drilling and production systems, hangers, such as a casing hanger, may be used to suspend strings (e.g., piping) within the well to facilitate extraction of the resource. Such hangers may be disposed within and supported by a housing (e.g., a spool or a bowl) of the wellhead.
In some cases, a tool is utilized to facilitate running (e.g., lowering) the hanger into the wellhead. However, typical tools for running the hanger into the wellhead may not maintain alignment of the hanger with a bore of the wellhead during the running operation, and thus, the hanger may be installed within the wellhead in a tilted orientation (e.g., non-parallel to an axial axis of the bore). Such misalignment of the hanger may impede subsequent placement of a sealing assembly to seal an annular space between the hanger and the wellhead and/or may interfere with running other tools and strings through the wellhead. Additionally, typical tools for running the hanger may move circumferentially within the wellhead and may have hard radially outer surfaces that contact various surfaces within the wellhead (e.g., a radially inner surface of the housing) as the hanger is lowered to its landed position, which may wear the various surfaces of the wellhead.